This invention is directed to a tape removal machine, and particularly a tape removal machine where pressure-sensitive adhesive tape is removed from the surface of a stiff card.
In one particularly important utility, tape is applied to printed circuit boards. Printed circuit boards are insulated substrates, often of epoxy filled fiberglass, with conductor paths on the surface. These conductor paths are formed in a laminated metallic layer by optical-chemical methods, by deposition or etching away. In the continued treatment of such printed circuit boards, it is often desirable to chemically treat an area thereof which is delineated by a straight line.
In modern practice this straight line is created by the application of pressure-sensitive tape to the board. In order to protect both sides of the board, pressure-sensitive tape is usually applied to both sides of the board, in exact alignment across the board. Now, this tape permits the partial immersion of the board for chemical purposes to treat the board for circuit purposes, and a line of demarcation beyond which the chemical is stopped is readily established.
The board thus having pressure-sensitive tape applied thereto, after the chemical treatment it is desirable and usually necessary to remove the tape. Prior methods of tape removal have been slow and have required a considerable amount of manpower.